Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Thanking Jane Millett

We just posted the email below to the town council.  We doubt many of you watched the council ‘action’ last night (where was it??), but you could always watch the replay on Cable 3.

Jane mentioned the email we had sent and the photos we referred to, and said she had personally walked around the building herself.  She asked Mr. Manager what the plan was for addressing the exterior, and he answered that it would not be addressed in the established ‘construction’ budget, but would instead be addressed in annual operations and maintenance budgets. 

In other words, he kicked the can well beyond his departure date.

Here’s the email:

Councilor Millet:


I watched the portion of last night's town council meeting that discussed the ongoing work at The McLellan.


I want to thank you for raising the concerns I identified about exterior deterioration.  The discussion among your fellow councilors was essentially nil.


I did not find Gary Brown's response particularly comforting.  Paying for the repairs is one thing; when they take place is quite another.


These circumstances are not static.  There are rotting and other forms of destruction taking place in the locations shown in the photos, and unknown damage going on underneath the surface.  The longer responsible individuals take to address these problems, the worse the damage gets, and the more it will cost to repair them and prevent recurrence.


As you can see in a number of the cases, the deterioration to date is making things even worse by allowing water to enter further into the trim and structural components of the building, and this is, in some respects, a 'ticking time bomb.'


I trust some meaningful action will be taken soon to 'get to the bottom of this.'


Thanks again for your interest in following up on this.


Pem Schaeffer

Additionally, if we heard things right, Bowdoin College will be occupying the third floor for the next 10 years, and the ‘need’ for a $90,000 plus emergency generator system stems from them.

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